BILL S.395

79TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION

S.395

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

Mr. HAYDEN (for Mr. HATCH) (by request) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation

A BILL

To modify the application of the excess-land and repayment provisions of the Federal reclamation la,vs to the Central Valley project, California.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of

Representa-2 tives of the United States of America in Oongress assembled,

3 That in order to further the policy of the Congress to foster

4 the developm.ent of family-size, resident-owned and operated 5 farms, the Secretary of the Interior, in the planning and 6 construction of works and in the making of contracts for

7 the delivery of. water for irrigation from the Central Valley

8 project, California, as now authorized or as it may

here:-9 after be extended by the authorization of additional proj-10 ects in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Basins?

CaIi-1 fornia, shall give preference to those districts or other water 2 users' organizations (hereinafter called districts) which have

3 the gr~atest proportion of irrigable acreage held in

con-4 formity with the excess-land and antispeculatiQn provisions

5 of ,the Federal reclamation laws and to those individual 6 owners of less than one hundred and sixty acres of irrigable 7 land not within a district.

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 2·1 25

SEC. 2. In order to give effect to t4e preference estab-lished by section 1 of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior shall reserve 50 per centum of each class of water estimated to be available froni any unit of said project, for a period of five yea.rs after notice of its completion has been given by him, for sale and disposition to districts, and to individual owners of land holdings not within a. district, which comply with the excess-land and antispeculation provisions of the reclamation laws. Subject to the preferences established by section 1, unreserved water and reserved, water not con-tracted for at the end of said period may be s-old on perma-nent contracts to districts, and to such individual ownerships, which do not comply with the excess-land and antispecula-tion provisions of the reclamaantispecula-tion laws, upon the following terms and conditions: (a) That deIlveries of water to the contracting district or· ownership will be made · only when all irrigable lands therein which were not irrigated prior

to

11

excess-1. land and antispeculation provisions of the reclamation laws ~ 2 and (b) that the district or owner shall pay an annual

3 surcharge for all water delivered under the contract until 4 such time as the entire irrigable acreage within the district 5 or ownership which was irrigated prior to January 1, 1944,

6 is held in conforlnity with the excess-land and antispecula-7 tion provisions of the reclamation laws. The surcharge

8 payable for anyone year shall be computed at 25 per

9 centum of the rates or charges that would otherwise be

10 payable for water delivered during such year. Subject to

11 the preferences established by section 1, water not needed 12 for delivery under such permanent contracts may be sold

13 on temporary annual contracts to districts or such individual 14 ownerships which do not comply with the excess-land and

15 antispeculation provisions of the reclamation laws, provided 16 the contracting district or owner agrees to pay a surcharge

17 computed in accordance with the foregoing provisions of

18 this section. Out of any moneys received on· account ot 19 surcharges under this Act, the Secretary shall provide for

-20 paying or crediting to landholders whose lands are' held in 21 conformity with the excess-land and antispeculation provi-22 sions of the reclamation laws any sums which in his estima-23 tion represent moneys collected from such landholders, with 24 respect to such lands, on account of such surcharges. Moneys

1 the Treasury as a special fund, which is hereby

appropri-2 ated and made available for the making of the payments 3 or credits provided for under this section and otherwise

4 for carrying out the purposes of this Act.

5 SEC. 3. Subject to the provisions of the preceding 6 sections of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior is author-7 ized to make permanent contracts for the sale and dispo-8 sition of water from said project, for irrigation or other

9 purposes, at rates per acre-foot which shall be computed "10 to produce revenues sufficient to cover operation and main-11 tenance costs and to cover fixed charges for the portion of 12 the project cost that is allocated to the purpose' for which 13 the water is furnished and that is to be returned by the 14 water users. Such contracts, in the discretion of the Sec-15 retary, may establish different rates for furnishing (a) 16 primary water; that is, water .estimated to be available 17 .annually to meet irrigation and other requjrements; and 18 (b) secondary water; that is, water only intermittently 19 available. Each such contract shall require payment of said 20 ~ates each year in advance of the delivery of water for said 21. year and may contain provisions whereby at the end of ten' 22 years from the date of its execution and every five years

23 . thereafter there shall be readjustments of the contract upon 24 the demand of either party thereto, either upvvard or

Secre-5

1 tary of the Interior may find to be justified. The authority

2 conferred by this section shall be in addition to the authority

3 to make repayment contracts now existing under the

recla-4 mation laws.

5 SEC. 4. Except as inconsistent with the prOVISIons of

6 this Act, the contracts authorized by sections 2 and 3 'shall

7 comply with all the requirements of the Federal reclamation

8 laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts

9 amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto) .

10 SEC. 5. Upon the representation of any landholder,

own-11 ing irrigable lands in excess of one hundred and sixty acres,

12 entering into a permanent contract under this Act, or who

I

13 owns excess lands within a district entering into such a

14 contract, that he desires to sell some or all of his lands in

15 order to further the accomplishment of the purposes of this

16 Act, the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to

17 ~cquire, by purchase, any of the lands covered by such

18 representation, if and when the owner is agreeable to selling

19 at a price dee~ed satisfactory by the Secretary. Any lands

20 so acquired shall be made a.vailable for settlement and

dis-21 position in family-size units, not exceeding one hundred and

22 sixty acres, upon terms and conditions fixed by the

Secre-23 tary, with preference to veterans of the present war as

24 purchasers.

2 1187), the Secretary of the Interior shall, with respect to 3 the Central Valley project, make findings on (a) the part 4 of the estimated cost of the proj.ect which can properly be 5 allocated to the preservation and propagation of fish and 6 wildlife; (b) the part of the estimated cost of the project 7 which can properly be allocated to general salinity control; 8 ( c) the part of the estimated cost of the project which can 9 properly be allocated to recreation; and (d) the part of the 10 estimated cost of the project which can properly be allocated 11 to increased costs by reason of wartime construction. Each 12 such finding shall be reported to the Congress, and shall 13 become effective one year from the date on which it is so 14 reported, unless in the meantime the Congress shall have 15 passed a concurrent resolution disapproving or modifying 16 the finding. Costs allocated pursuant to such findings shall 17 not be reimbursable. Upon any such finding becoming 18 effective, the project shall be operated in the interests of 19 the preservation and propagation of fish and wildlife, gen-20 eral salinity control, or recreation to the extent justified by 21 the allocation made for such purpose.

79TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION

S.395

A BILL

To modify the application of the excess-land and repayment provisions of the Federal reclamation laws to the Central Valley project, California.

By Mr. HATCH

JANUARY 25, 1945

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation

79TH CONGRESS _{1ST SESSION}

H

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IN THE HOUSE OF

Mr. RANKIN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-mittee on Rivers and Harbors

A BILL

To provide for the creation of conservation authorities, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of

Representa-2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 . That this Act may be cited as the Conservation Authorities

4 Act of 1945. .

5 PURPOSE AND POLICY OF THE ACT

6 SEC. 2. It is the purpose and policy of this Act to

7 develop, integrate, and coordinate plans, projects, and

activ-8 ities for or incidental to the promotion of navigation, the

9 control and prevention of floods, the safeguarding of

navi-10 gable waters, ,the reclamation of the public lands, and

11 the generation, sale, and distribution of electric energy, in

---1 order to aid and protect commerce among the several States, 2 to strengthen the national defense, to conserve the water, 3 soil, and forest resources of the Nation, to stabilize

employ-4 ment and relieve unemployment, and otherwise to protect

5 and promote the national interest.

6 CONSERVATION AUTHORITIES

7 SEC. 3. (a) To carry out the purposes of this Act, thert

S are hereby created the following corporated conservation

9 authorities, which shall be agencies and instrumentalitie8

10 of the United States: (1) The Atlantic Seaboard Authority,

11 for the drainage basins in the United States of the rivers 12 flowing into the Atlantic Ocean and of the rivers flowing 13 into the Gulf of lVlexico, from the east, below the basin of

14 the Suwanee River; (2) the Great Lakes-Ohio Valley

15 Authority, for the drainage basins in the United States of 16

17 18 19

the rivers flowing into or from any the Niagara and the St. Lawrence Ohio River, except the drainage nessee and Cumberland Rivers, and

of the Great Lakes, Rivers, and of the basins of the

Ten-of the nvers

flow-20 ing into the Mississippi River above Cairo, Illinois, from 21 the east; (3) the Tennessee Valley Authority, for the

drain-22 age basins of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, of the

23 rivers flowing into the Mississippi River below Oairo, Illinois, 24 from the east, and of the rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico

l' of the Suwanee River; (4) the Missouri Valley Authority,

2 for the drainage basins within the United States of the

3 J\1:issouri River and the Red River of the North and of the

4 rivers flowing into the }\;Iississippi River above Oairo,

Illi-5 nois, from the. west; (5) the Arkansas Valley Authority,

6 for the drainage basins within the United States of the

7 Arkansas, Red, White, and Rio Grande Rivers, of the rivers

8 flowing into the Mississippi River below Oairo, Illinois,

9 from the west, and of the rivers floV\Ting into the Gulf of

10 l\Iexieo west of the Mississippi River; (6) the Southwestern

11 Authority, for the drainage basins within the United States

12 of the rivers flowing into the Great Basin; that is, the

13 drainage basins of the rivers in the western United States

14 having no outlet. to the sea; (7) the Oolumbia Valley

Au-15 thority, for the drainage basins within the United States of

16 the Oolumbia River and the rivers flowing into the Pacific 17 Ocean north of the Oalifornia-Oregon line; (8) the Oalifornia

\

18 Authority, for the drainage basins within the

IT

19 of the rivers flowing into the Pacific Ocean south of the

20 Oalifo~nia-Oregon line; and ( 9) the Oolorado Valley

Au-21 thority:, for the drainage basin within the United States of

22 the Oolorado River: Provided, however, That nothing in this

23 Act shall be construed to limit the functions; powers, or 24 duties of the Mississippi River Oommission as cTeated and

4

1 sees. 1 to 7, inclusive, 21 Stat. 37), as amended; and as 2 compiled in sections 641 to 651, inclusive, of title 33 of the 3 United States Code. The President shall from time to time 4 more specifically define or redefine the territorial boundaries 5 of the Authorities as he finds necessary or appropriate to

6 facilitate the regional development, integration, and

coor-7 dination of plans, projects, and activities as in this Act pro-S vided and to obtain the ad vantages of natural and economic

9 boundaries.

10 (b) Each authority shall maintain its principal office

11 at a convenient place in its respective geographic region

12 and shall, upon the selection of the location of a principal 13 office, file with the Secretary of State public notice of its 14 selection of such location.

15 ( c) 'Vithin six months after the enactment of this

16 A·ct, the Columbia Valley Authority shall take over the

17 Bonneville project, on the Columbia River in Oregon, and

18 all powers, rights, duties, functions, obligations, liabilities,

19 and personnel of the Columbia River Administrator created

20 by and now functioning under the Act entitled "An Act

21 to authorize the completion, maintenance, and operation of

22 Bonneville project for navigation, and for other purposes",

23 approved August 20, 1937, as amended. Such

Adminis-24 trator shall thereupon take all action necessary or appropriate